Yet outside the main stages of the metropolis is where our work is needed. There are a few architects who challenge the conventions of the profession and the ever-dictating forces of the market; they go where the real problems are and try to solve them with insight, economy and wit. These people are the pathfinders towards the next revolution in architecture, which will not focus on style, but on the balance between man and nature –or, in short, survival.

I can still distinctly remember these words uttered by Sami Rintala at the opening of the Edge – Paracentric Architecture symposium in 2009, the main topic of which was socially and environmentally responsible architecture. The global economic crisis was only beginning, and we architects looked on the issue of socio-economic inequality from afar, expecting that the crisis will soon end, and that the era of progress and architectural hyper-production will continue. Few architects took a critical stance at the time and stepped out of the framework of customary architectural production connected to political and capital flows.